Selling a home in New York: the seller's side

Transfer taxes: what the seller pays

New York State transfer tax. The seller pays it: $2 per $500 of the price, which is 0.4%, rising to 0.65% for New York City homes sold for $3 million or more (NYS Department of Taxation and Finance).

New York City's Real Property Transfer Tax. 1% of the price up to $500,000 and 1.425% above that, for houses, condo units and co-op shares alike (NYC Department of Finance). The city's page doesn't name who pays; in a resale the seller customarily does.

Mansion tax. The buyer pays it, but if the buyer doesn't, or is exempt, the law makes the seller pay (NYS DTF). Your attorney will make sure the contract leaves it with the buyer.

The Hamptons. There is no city transfer tax. The Peconic Bay tax is the buyer's (Tax Law §1449-dd), so the seller's tax is the state's 0.4%.

The broker's commission

No law sets a broker's commission. The New York Department of State says a broker's pay isn't regulated by statute or regulation, so the amount and terms are negotiable, and should be agreed before the property is listed (NYS Department of State). Before you sign a listing agreement, the listing agent must give you the state's agency disclosure form, explaining whom the agent represents, and have you acknowledge it (Real Property Law §443).

Read the listing agreement for its length, whether it is exclusive, what happens if you sell to someone you found yourself, and whether part of the commission is offered to a buyer's broker. Our net proceeds calculator uses a 5% default only as a starting point; change it to what you agree.

Selling a co-op: flip tax and board approval

Flip tax. Many co-ops charge a fee on a sale. New York's Business Corporation Law allows a co-op to charge transfer fees if they are provided for in the proprietary leases, the offering plan or properly approved amendments (Business Corporation Law §501(c)). The amount, how it is calculated and who pays are set by your building's documents; it is usually the seller's cost, but the contract can shift it. Ask your managing agent for the current terms before you set a price.

Board approval. Your sale depends on the board approving your buyer. Courts defer to co-op boards that act for the co-op's purposes, within their authority and in good faith (NY Court of Appeals, Pullman, 2003, on Levandusky), and New York law doesn't require a board to give reasons for a rejection (NY Senate bill S6346, in committee). A buyer with a strong board package protects your sale as much as theirs: ask your broker how the buyer's finances compare with the building's requirements before you accept an offer.

Selling a condo: the right of first refusal

Where a condo's declaration or by-laws give the board a right of first refusal, your sale depends on the board waiving it. The buyer applies on the building's form; if the board instead exercises the right, it takes the sale on the same terms, you refund the buyer's deposit and the contract ends (NYC Bar condo contract form). Ask the managing agent early for the application and the time the board takes.

Your attorney's role

In New York the seller's attorney customarily drafts the contract of sale and negotiates it with the buyer's attorney (New York City Bar). At signing the buyer's contract deposit is usually paid to your attorney, who holds it in escrow; whoever holds it must keep it in a separate account, and the contract must name the escrow agent and the bank (General Business Law §778-a). Your attorney also handles the payoff of your mortgage, the transfer tax returns and the closing. Agree the fee in writing.

What you must disclose

If you sell a house of one to four families, you must complete, sign and give the buyer a Property Condition Disclosure Statement before they sign a binding contract, and a copy signed by both of you is attached to the contract. You don't have to investigate the property or search public records, but if you learn an answer has become materially inaccurate you must give a revised statement, up to closing or the buyer moving in. The form includes questions on flood zones, flood insurance and past flood claims. It doesn't apply to condo units, co-op apartments or vacant land (Real Property Law §462, revised 4 July 2025).

Some transfers are exempt, including sales by an estate's executor or a trustee, transfers between spouses or to relatives, and sales of newly built homes never lived in (RPL §463). The current law no longer offers sellers a credit in place of the form: a seller who wilfully fails to comply is liable for the buyer's actual damages (RPL §465).

Capital gains and the home-sale exclusion

Your gain is the amount you realise (the sale price less selling expenses such as the commission and some legal fees) minus your adjusted basis (what you paid, including purchase costs and improvements, less certain adjustments such as depreciation). If the home was your main home, you can exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, if you owned it and lived in it as your main home for at least two of the five years before the sale, and haven't used the exclusion on another sale in the past two years. A partial exclusion may apply if you sell early because of a job move, health or an unforeseeable event. A loss on your main home isn't deductible (IRS Publication 523).

If you rented the home out, depreciation you claimed (or could have claimed) changes the result, and some of the gain may not qualify. Publication 523 has the worksheets; a tax adviser can apply them to your sale. Our tools don't calculate capital gains tax.

A worked example

Selling a $1,500,000 Manhattan condo with a $600,000 mortgage, at our calculator's defaults: state transfer tax $6,000, city transfer tax $21,375, commission $75,000. With the attorney's fee and other defaults, costs come to $107,875, and after paying off the mortgage you'd receive $792,125 before any income tax. The commission is our default assumption, not a quote. Open this example and change it to your own figures.

If you're unsure whether to sell at all, compare selling now with renting the home out for a few years and selling later.